Microphones, cables and rows of knobs and dials — every recording studio has ‘em. A stated goal, on the other hand? Not all studios have one of those, but Minimum Wage Recording did: “To make it affordable enough that bands could take more time in the studio and really dig into doing some art.”

That’s how owner Lance Koehler describes the mission he sought to fulfill during Minimum Wage’s two-decade run operating in Oregon Hill. Now the gifted engineer, founding member of No BS! Brass Band and overall pillar of Richmond’s music community is packing up his studio and moving to Staunton, and some his former clients are stepping up to honor his contributions — and pay forward his generosity.

On Sunday, Nov. 17, the Broadberry will host A Celebration of Minimum Wage Recording Studios. The concert — part send-off, part benefit event — was the brainchild of fellow drummer Scott Clark, who was among the first to record at the studio when it was founded shortly after Koehler moved from New Orleans to Richmond in 2001. Upon learning Koehler was planning to move again, Clark was immediately inspired to put a bill together.

“We’ve got to do a fundraiser or something,” Clark remembers thinking. “Because Lance has done so much for so many people in the city. It’s something that we can do to give back.”

The initial incarnation of Minimum Wage grew out of Koehler’s desire to break even swapping his earnings from New Orleans restaurant work for audio engineering wages. “I was calling in progressively more and more, having to call in sick to work to do sessions down in New Orleans. As that grew, I was like, ‘Okay, well, if I get paid what I’m getting paid cooking, I’ll just do that.’”

It took Koehler a few years to transition from cooking part time at Harrison Street Cafe while recording bands in their own rehearsal spots to engineering full-time at the space in Oregon Hill. Having a room of his own was crucial. “I was just way freer to book sessions and the place was more attractive to folks,” he says.

That attraction was widespread. To claim that everyone recorded there would hardly be an overstatement, and a quick scroll of the Minimum Wage website provides a keyhole view into the breadth of Koehler’s clientele. Alongside several No BS! Brass Band albums, you’ll find everything from big bands, like Samson Trinh’s and Fight the Big Bull, to the gritty folk of Tim Barry and Josh Small; the hip-hop and jazz fusion of Butcher Brown and the renowned salsa of Bio Ritmo; Government Warning’s hardcore and Wasted Time’s punk. Bands from across the stylistic spectrum booked time there for the inviting vibes.

“You always felt welcome there,” Scott Clark says — and the low rates, which made the studio a great place to experiment.

Maximum sonic freedom

“Let’s book a day with Lance” become a mantra for the city’s musicians, according to Clark. “He created this situation where you could go and work in the studio to get something, but also not feel totally bummed if your ideas maybe didn’t work, or if you needed to come back and redo stuff the next time.”

One artist who benefited from that relaxed environment is Richmond-based fingerstyle guitarist Justin Golden, who is part of the Broadberry celebration. Golden first recorded at Minimum Wage in 2019. “It was really my first time seeing how that process worked,” he says. “Working with Lance was just so easy and seamless.”

“Justin Golden would be a great example of taking a lot of time to find tones and really figure out stuff,” Koehler notes. Alongside producer Chip Hale, Golden and Koehler sought new sonic territory while recording 2022 LP “Hard Times and a Woman.” The album’s varied textures and techniques were the result of in-the-moment exploration — efforts in which Koehler was actively involved. That’s how blues number “Pulling Weight” ended up with foot-powered percussion.

“[Lance] was in the room with us,” Golden remembers. “We were recording stomps and claps and tambourine and shaker… We’re all there just stomping away, trying to figure out how to make the sounds blend and make it sound like something unique.”

Golden describes Koehler’s support as transformational — not just the studio guidance but also Koehler’s willingness to fill in on drums at gigs when needed. Looking back, Golden cites the “Hard Times and a Woman” sessions as an especially pivotal moment. “It was very early in my recording career,” Golden says, “and knowing how things are done and being comfortable in the studio is hard, [but] I never felt like I was being pushed. I never felt like I was a burden.”

“That project got me on the map enough that I’m able to do what I do now,” he adds.

Part of the family

Another group that locked into Minimum Wage’s longer wavelength — one that will join Justin Golden and Koehler’s own No BS! Brass Band at the Broadberry — is Bio Ritmo. The well-traveled and locally beloved salsa revival group has been praised during its 30-year history for pushing against the boundaries of salsa’s sound, and Lance Koehler has been a constant during that journey of sonic discovery.

“Richmond has been so lucky to have to have Lance, it’s crazy,” says Bio Ritmo singer and founding member Rei Alvarez. “He’s got an amazing ear, good taste and infinite patience … He’s the guy in the boat with you, and you fall asleep, and you know he’s going to be awake when you wake up.”

The band has rarely recorded elsewhere. Bio Ritmo trumpet player Bob Miller tracked at Minimum Wage too many times to remember, and he always found the studio’s lived-in decor — area rugs, Star Wars knickknacks, piecemeal soundproofing and oversized, upside-down fried eggs over the sound board — to be a welcome departure from the stiflingly hermetic, glossy magazine-like feel of some studios.

“It’s more laid back,” Miller says. “He’ll let you go as far as you want to go if you’re working on something, especially something a little more creative that’s maybe not totally planned out when you go in there.”

Trust is a two-way street, and the relationship between the members of Bio Ritmo and Koehler evolved to become almost familial. Alvarez compares Koehler to an uncle, and bandleader Marlysse Simmons marvels at how much of the band’s history — highs and lows alike — has happened on Koehler’s watch. “Lance has seen plenty of Ritmo fights,” Simmons confesses. “I threw my glasses across the room once and stormed out… Can you imagine like 10 people and everyone’s crazy? He had to deal with us.”

Despite — or perhaps because of — Minimum Wage’s spacial limitations, Koehler counts sessions with large ensembles as some of his favorites from his time in Richmond. Bio Ritmo’s are on that list, as are Samson Trinh’s, which packed in nearly 20 players: three guitarists, three keyboardists, eight horn players, acoustic bass, drums, ukulele, plus vocals.

“The place is small, and that music is is wild,” Koehler remembers. “Even with all that going on, Laura Ann [Singh] was doing live vocals. The keeper fucking vocals on the record are her [singing] live with the band. Fucking incredible.”

“He’s just a real dude that wants to help people,” Marlysse Simmons says. “That’s a very unique thing. He does keep the rates probably too low, and he has because he wants to be able to offer that service.”

Lack of affordability in Richmond

Finances are part of the combination of circumstances that led to his relocation. Koehler paid month-to-month rent the entire time his studio was located in Oregon Hill, and a three-year search for an affordable space in the area he could own proved unfruitful. (There are also family factors — a parent’s move back east and the fact that his partner has a four-acre spread in Staunton.)

“Overall, this is a move that I want to do,” Koehler says. “It feels completely right. It’s not a bummer, with the exception of just saying goodbye to that room that’s a really special spot.”

Koehler will continue to drum for No BS! Brass Band, and once things settle in Staunton, he’ll ramp up conversations with contractors about building a barn-style recording facility at his new spot, which is close to downtown but removed enough to feel remote. “Something’s going to happen [there] that’s gonna have accommodations for bands to come and hang and stay overnight for a weekend or a week,” he projects.

The current location’s final sessions took place about a week before the Broadberry celebration — familiar faces fitting in a few more takes. Scott Clark was among them. Like Bio Ritmo, Clark almost always steered the projects he led toward Koehler’s studio, harnessing the freedom it offered to make some of the most adventurous jazz in recent Richmond memory. In Clark’s mind, the recording equipment isn’t all that’s heading west. “I’m sure if he goes on to create something in Staunton, if he starts another studio or something, it’ll have the same energy because of who he is,” Clark says.

Clark is hoping other musicians with Minimum Wage in their album credits — as well as listeners who have enjoyed those albums — will help send some of that energy back Koehler’s way.

“I feel like we all, in a way, owe Lance something for all the sessions that he’s done for well under what he is worth as an engineer and as a studio,” he adds. “That we can come together to give something back [for] all that he’s given us.”

A Celebration of Minimum Wage Recording Studios will take place on Sunday, Nov. 17 at the Broadberry. Bio Ritmo, No BS! Brass Band and Justin Golden will perform. Doors open at 7 p.m. and music starts at 8 p.m. Proceeds will benefit Minimum Wage Recording Studio. Tickets are $15 in advance ($20 at the door) and can be purchased at thebroadberry.com.

Editor’s note: Marlysse Simmons of Bio Ritmo has started a gofundme if you’d care to contribute directly to the Minimum Wage relocation fund, visit this gofundme site.